Comparative Chemical Profiling and Antimicrobial/Anticancer Evaluation of Extracts from Farmed versus Wild Agelas oroides and Sarcotragus foetidus Sponges

Marine sponges are highly efficient in removing organic pollutants and their cultivation, adjacent to fish farms, is increasingly considered as a strategy for improving seawater quality. Moreover, these invertebrates produce a plethora of bioactive metabolites, which could translate into an extra profit for the aquaculture sector. Here, we investigated the chemical profile and bioactivity of two Mediterranean species (i.e., Agelas oroides and Sarcotragus foetidus) and we assessed whether cultivated sponges differed substantially from their wild counterparts. Metabolomic analysis of crude sponge extracts revealed species-specific chemical patterns, with A. oroides and S. foetidus dominated by alkaloids and lipids, respectively. More importantly, farmed and wild explants of each species demonstrated similar chemical fingerprints, with the majority of the metabolites showing modest differences on a sponge mass-normalized basis. Furthermore, farmed sponge extracts presented similar or slightly lower antibacterial activity against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, compared to the extracts resulting from wild sponges. Anticancer assays against human colorectal carcinoma cells (HCT-116) revealed marginally active extracts from both wild and farmed S. foetidus populations. Our study highlights that, besides mitigating organic pollution in fish aquaculture, sponge farming can serve as a valuable resource of biomolecules, with promising potential in pharmaceutical and biomedical applications.

Descrição

This study was implemented in the framework of the research project SPINAQUA (Grant No 239) funded by the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (HFRI) and the General Secretariat for Research and Technology (GSRT) under the “1st call for H.F.R.I. Research Projects for the support of Post-doctoral Researchers”. This publication is based upon work from COST Action CA18238 (Ocean4Biotech), supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) program, which provided Short Term Scientific Mission (STSM) grant support to D.V.-M. to perform the experimental work at NOVA-FCT. C.M.P.R. is financially supported by La Caixa Foundation (Grant No LCF/PR/HR21/52410028). Publisher Copyright: © 2023 by the authors.

Palavras-chave

aquaculture and fish farming bioactive compounds supply chemical fingerprinting demospongiae marine natural products marine sponge farming MS/MS dereplication porifera primary metabolites secondary metabolites Pharmaceutical Science Drug Discovery Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics (miscellaneous) SDG 14 - Life Below Water